{UAH} Travellers eating baboon meat on the Gulu highway

Travellers eating baboon meat on the Gulu highway

Written by Sadab Kitatta Kaaya

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Created: 19 October 2016

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A baboon in Murchison Falls National Park

The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has warned there is a high chance travelers that enjoy roadside mchomo (roast meat) could be munching on baboon meat.

Andrew Sseguya, the UWA executive director, said baboon meat is sold as illegal bush meat at Kafu along the Kampala-Gulu highway.

"We have arrested a number of people from Kafu selling baboon meat as kob meat," Sseguya told journalists at the UWA headquarters at Kitante, Kampala.
"Many of the people that sell game meat are selling to you baboons meat or that of dead calves, according to tests we have so far carried out. This should be a warning to Ugandans; you are eating things that you don't understand..." Sseguya added.

According to the US Centre for Diseases Control (CDC), consumption of meat from baboons and other primates such as monkeys, gorillas and chimpanzees can lead to contraction of viruses such as the deadly Ebola.

It also links Ebola infections in people to handling and eating infected animals. In 2012, CDC also identified evidence of viruses such as simian foamy virus in illegally- imported wildlife products impounded at several US airports.

This probably explains why in some Central and West African countries where bush meat stalls are common, incidents of Ebola outbreaks are rampant. In Cameroon, where 80 per cent of the meat eaten is bush meat, scientists are tracking an HIV/Aids-like virus called Simian foamy virus (SFV), which they fear could get into humans and cause a global health crisis.

IMPACT

Dr Asuman Lukwago, the permanent secretary of the ministry of Health, told The Observer on Tuesday that the ministry has during several inter-departmental meetings warned about the dangers associated with the increasing consumption of game meat.

"Diseases like Marburg and Ebola are from apes...if they [baboons] are diseased, they can be a source of a serious epidemic," Lukwago said.

Since the ministry of Health has no enforcement arm, Lukwago said, they are looking at UWA to enforce the ban on sale of game meat. Sseguya did not give details of how many people had been arrested. Working with partners, Sseguya said, UWA is in the process of setting up a multimillion shilling forensic laboratory to test the bush meats on the market.

"Right now, I don't have the figures yet because we are still taking quotations [from suppliers] but I can confirm that it is going to cost us a lot of money because the protection of Ugandans is more important," Sseguya said.

Meanwhile, Sseguya refuted a New Vision report on Monday, which implicated UWA rangers in killings of people in the Murchison Falls national park.

"On August 23, [UWA] rangers were on routine patrol [when] they encountered and exchanged fire with a group of armed men suspected to be poachers," Sseguya said.

While the New Vision report mentioned seven fatalities, Sseguya said, two men; Samuel Baguma and Alex Bagira were killed during the shootout and a gun UG24581999 was recovered from them and handed to the police in Buliisa district.

"We carry guns for the protection of the animals and ourselves... we don't kill people in the national parks by mistake because it is illegal to enter a national park with a firearm," Sseguya said.

He said through such exchanges of fire with suspected poachers, UWA has so far lost about 50 rangers.

Gwokto La'Kitgum

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